Archive

This week, the Civilian Oversight Task Force—the all-volunteer panel tasked with reviewing civilian oversight of the Baltimore Police Department as part of the city’s Consent Decree with the Department of Justice—approved a set of principals that include a “vastly expanded role for community members in an array of police matters, including the handling of officer […]

Last night, the Enoch Pratt Free Library and OSI-Baltimore co-sponsored an event with author Peter Edelman and professor Lester Spence at North Baltimore’s Church of the Redeemer as part of OSI’s Talking About Race series and the Pratt’s Writer’s LIVE series. Edelman discussed his new book, Not a Crime to Be Poor: The Criminalization of Poverty […]

Today, the Baltimore Sun wrote about a recent collaboration between OSI and the Baltimore City Health Department to develop a real-time tool to monitor how many drug treatment slots are available in the city at any moment. The hope is to streamline the process connecting those who seek treatment for substance use disorders to open beds in […]

Open Society Institute-Baltimore is proud to announce that our Drug Addiction Treatment program will be identified as the Addiction and Health Equity program going forward. In the 20 years since OSI created the Drug Addiction Treatment program, the healthcare landscape around drug use and addiction has shifted in important ways, leading us to take a […]

On Saturday, April 21, The Featherstone Foundation, started by 2013 OSI Community Fellow, Lanaea Featherstone, and Cristo Rey will host “Mi Dinero, Mi Destino,” a free, financial education conference which will include topics such as budgeting and financial goal-setting, how to purchase a first home, and understanding interest rates and credit. A continental breakfast, lunch, […]

On Thursday night, while Farajii Muhammad moderated a panel after a screening of Anna Deavere Smith’s HBO film, “Notes from the Field” at the Charles Theatre (OSI hosted a staged performance of the work in 2015), 2016 OSI Community Fellow Lamarr Shields (center) filled in as host of Muhammad’s WEAA show, “For the Culture.” For the […]

Last week, the “Only in Your State” blog featured the Book Thing of Baltimore, which was founded by 2000 Community Fellow, Russell Wattenberg. Wattenberg established the Book Thing to be a book distribution network system to provide used and remainder books to non-profit organizations and individuals throughout Baltimore City.

On Wednesday night, OSI joined Jewish community group Charm City Tribe at Max’s Taphouse for its first-ever “Beit Midrash” (House of Study) event, on the subject of “Opioids in Our Communities.” Rabbi Jessy Gross, the director of Charm City Tribe, began the event by sharing texts from the Jewish tradition with relevance to the conversation, including […]

This week, the Baltimore Police Monitoring Team, which was put in place as part of the Consent Decree, issued a Request for Applications (RFA) for neighborhood liaisons. Neighborhood liaisons will facilitate the Monitoring Team’s community engagement efforts by providing localized points of access to the Monitoring Team across the City. The Monitoring Team will hire up […]

Recently, 2017 OSI Community Fellow Shantell Roberts was a guest on the podcast The Last Advocate, a forum that focuses on advocates and the work they are doing to better their communities. Roberts spoke to host Marche Templeton about her beginnings as an advocate, as well as how she started Touching Young Lives, Inc., a […]